Biography
Amber Dawn is a writer living on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, Canada). Her poetry collection Where the words end and my body begins (2015) was a finalist for the BC Book Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler’s Memoir (2013) won the Vancouver Book Award. Her novel Sub Rosa (2010) won the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Lesbian Fiction and the Writers’ Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize. Sodom Road Exit (2018) has been shortlisted for multiple other awards.
Dawn writes honestly and transparently about queer femme sexuality and justice for sex workers through the lens of her own lived experience. As an advocate for her community she is also the editor of three anthologies that celebrate LGBTQ+ writers and sex workers. Dawn currently teaches creative writing at Douglas College, and guest mentors at several drop-in, community-driven spaces in Downtown Eastside Vancouver.